Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Japanese classical stories

イラスト　「夢宮 愛」　　運営サイト　「夢見る小さな部屋」

Ohana and Gonbei

(Japanese classical stories) (Hukushima)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆English　←→　English

　A long time ago, there lived a fox called Ohana and a raccoon dog called Gonbei in a village.

　Both of them are good at transforming themselves.

　One day, Ohana and Gonbei came across each other on a atreet.

　Gonbei politely talked to Ohana on purpose,

“I heard you are good at transforming, but I wonder if you are better than me.”

“Well. I don’t know until we have a competition in transforming. ”

　As soon as Gonbei heard that, he got angry.

“All right. Then let’s have a competition to see who is better.”

“Fine. Come to the precincts of the temple tomorrow night.”

　That was all she said and she left home.

“She is such a cheeky fox for a woman.

　Just you wait. I will beat you up.

　… But what should I transform to?”

　Gonbei took time to consider what he should transform to beat her.

　Anyhow, when Ohana transforms to a bride, she is so adorable even for Gonbei

and he always cannot tell if it is a real human lady.

　At the same time, even though Gonbei is good at transforming, he cannot transform to a bride because he is a man.

　On the other hand, as for Ohana, the fox,

“I’m sure Gonbei will lose.

　Oh well,

　I will beat him so bad and make him feel he doesn’t want to have any more competition again.”

　She said so and practiced transforming to a bride again and again.

　In the meantime, the night of the competition had come.

　As for Ohana, she transformed to a bride as always.

　Thanks to her practice, she transformed to a really beautiful bride.

　She went to the shrine as if she was a real bride with casting her eyes down.

　However, when she was going through the gateway of the shrine, she happened to look down

　and found a steaming hot manju(a bun) on the ground.

　Ohana swallowed in spite of herself.

　She looked around, but Gonbei had not arrived yet.

“Heh-heh, I should eat this right now.”

　She picked up the manju quickly and tried to put it in her mouth.

　Just at the moment, the manju transformed to the raccoon dog instantly.

“A-ha-ha-ha! Even though you transformed to a beautiful bride, you are such a greedy fox.”


“!!!”

　Ohana was so embarrassed that she forgot she was transforming to a bride and ran away with her tail out.

The end

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